Author Archive
Stained glass window portraying St. Anthony of Padua in Langen bei Bregenz, Germany, photo by Reinhard Müller [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
by Mark Nakib [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Roxbury) Baptisms, 1883-1889
Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Roxbury) Baptisms, 1889-1895
Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Roxbury) Baptisms, 1895-1900
Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Roxbury) Confirmations, 1885-1893
Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Roxbury) Confirmations, 1894-1900
Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Roxbury) Marriages, 1883-1900
From James Sullivan’s One Hundred Years of Progress, page 157
Coin depicting Edward the Confessor by Rasiel Suarez [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
St. Edward the Confessor in Medfield began as a mission from Sacred Heart in Natick. It was named for St. Edward the Confessor, a Medieval king of England who ruled in the 1000s.
Sacred Heart in Middleborough split off from St. Thomas the Aquinas in Bridgewater. The cornerstone of the church was laid in 1880.
This was a small update–it adds 154 new images to browse.
We’d like to thank volunteer Francis Alix for his help making this update possible.
The new volumes are:
Sacred Heart (Middleborough) Baptisms, First Communions, and Confirmations, 1885-1900
Colored etching of St. Francis de Sales from the Wellcome Collection.Today we’ve added seven new volumes to Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from St. Francis de Sales in Roxbury. One Hundred Years of Progress, the book written upon the archdiocese’s centennial, in which I usually find my parish history facts does not have much to say about the history of this parish. Instead, James Sullivan describes the architecture of the Church in 1900 in great detail. This update adds over 2,000 new images to browse.
Be sure to watch our how-to video if you need advice on navigating this database.
We’d like to thank the following volunteers for their help making this update possible: Francis Alix, Eileen McCarthy, Angela Napolitano, Ross and Linda Weaver. If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer, check out our new webinar on the topic, presented by Rachel Adams, and myself, Molly Rogers.
Finally, the Archdiocese of Boston Archives have launched a new digital photo collection. Check back from time to time to see new content. As more images are added, this could be a great resource for researchers of Boston Catholics.
The new volumes are listed below:
St. Francis de Sales (Roxbury) Index to Baptisms, 1861-1900
St. Francis de Sales (Roxbury) Baptisms, 1861-1874 (Vol. 1)
St. Francis de Sales (Roxbury) Baptisms, 1874-1888 (Vol. 2)
St. Francis de Sales (Roxbury) Baptisms, 1888-1896 (Vol. 3)
St. Francis de Sales (Roxbury) Baptisms, 1897-1900
St. Francis de Sales (Roxbury) Confirmations, 1876-1900
St. Francis de Sales (Roxbury) Marriages, 1861-1900
St. Paul (Cambridge) July 2018
Today we’re announcing 12 new volumes in Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from St. Augustine (Andover) and St. Paul (Cambridge). This update adds over 2,000 new images to browse. St. Augustine was established in Andover in 1852 as an outgrowth of St. Mary’s in Lawrence. St. Paul was established in 1875, breaking off from St. Peter’s in Cambridge. St. Augustine (Andover) includes five overlapping baptism volumes which were all included in this update as none is an exact replica of another. You may find duplicate records for a single event within these volumes. We’d like to thank the following scanners for helping with these parishes: John Phlo, Francis Alix, Ross & Linda Weaver, Kiera Breitenbach, Eileen McCarthy, Tom Dreyer, and Jeff Erickson. Be sure to watch our how-to video for tips on how to navigate this collection. The new volumes are listed below.
St. Augustine (Andover) Baptisms and Confirmations, 1862-1892
St. Augustine (Andover) Baptisms, 1862-1894
St. Augustine (Andover) Baptisms, 1885-1900
St. Augustine (Andover) Baptisms, 1892-1895
St. Augustine (Andover) Baptisms, 1894-1900
St. Augustine (Andover) Confirmations 1894-1900
St. Augustine (Andover) First Communions, 1895-1900
St. Augustine (Andover) Marriages, 1862-1892
St. Augustine (Andover) Marriages, 1892-1900
St. Paul (Cambridge) Baptisms, 1875-1900
St. Paul (Cambridge) Confirmations, 1875-1900
St. Paul (Cambridge) Marriages, 1875-1900
Today we’ve added one new sketch to Helen Schatvet Ullmann’s Western Massachusetts Families in 1790. This study project focuses on heads of families enumerated in the 1790 census in historic Berkshire and Hampshire counties, also including modern Franklin and Hampden counties. The new sketch profiles Robert Campbell of Plantation 7 in Hampshire County. He was a Revolutionary War veteran. Robert married Asenath Loveland in 1785. They had eight children. If you would like to learn more about this project, be sure to visit our information page.
Please note: These databases are available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Assumption of the Virgin by Annibale Carracci [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
St. Mary of the Assumption (Brookline) Baptisms & Marriages, 1852-1856
St. Mary of the Assumption (Brookline) Baptisms, 1852-1856
St. Mary of the Assumption (Brookline) Baptisms, 1857-1873
St. Mary of the Assumption (Brookline) Baptisms, 1874-1887
St. Mary of the Assumption (Brookline) Baptisms, 1887-1900
St. Mary of the Assumption (Brookline) Baptisms, 1900
St. Mary of the Assumption (Brookline) Confirmations, 1855-1891
St. Mary of the Assumption (Brookline) Confirmations, 1889-1891
St. Mary of the Assumption (Brookline) Marriages, 1857-1897
St. Mary of the Assumption (Brookline) Marriages, 1897-1900
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Interior of Our Lady of the Assumption, from One Hundred Years of Progress by James Sullivan, page 105
Today we’ve added three new volumes to Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900, from Our Lady of the Assumption in East Boston. Our Lady of the Assumption was the third Catholic church in East Boston. Construction commenced on the building in 1869. It was not completed until 1873. This new update adds over 800 new pages to browse. The update was possible thanks to the help of our wonderful scanners Eileen McCarthy, Kiera Breitenbach, Maddie Silberman, John Phlo, and Francis Alix. Be sure to watch our how-to video for tips on how to navigate this collection. The new volumes are listed below:
Our Lady of the Assumption (East Boston) Baptisms and Confirmations, 1869-1892
Our Lady of the Assumption (East Boston) Baptisms, 1892-1900
Our Lady of the Assumption (East Boston) Marriages, 1870-1896
Fall in Vermont
Today we’re announcing two new sketches and three updated sketches in our New England study projects. The first new sketch profiles Job Colman of Shelburne, MA, in Helen Schatvet Ullmann’s Western Massachusetts Families in 1790. This study project focuses on heads of families enumerated in the 1790 census in historic Berkshire and Hampshire counties, also including modern Franklin and Hampden counties.
The other new sketch highlights Benjamin Cole, 2nd of Shaftsbury, VT in Scott Andrew Bartley’s Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784. This study project tracks heads of families who lived in Vermont prior to the Revolutionary War.
Three existing sketches in Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784 were also updated. These volumes are listed below:
Bennett, John (Hartford)
Bramble, William (Hartford)
Marsh, Joel (Sharon)
Please note: These databases are available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Sample Annotation to correct an error in the birth year.
We are very happy to announce a new enhancement to the search experience today called Record Annotations.
Users are always welcome to report errors they find on our site. In many cases, the problem is mis-transcribed handwriting that we can easily fix. In the past, we have not been able to fix actual errors in our sources. For example, the published version of Torrey’s New England Marriages has printed information that is incorrect. We opted not to correct a wrong name, since any correction would appear to be a mis-transcription to anyone else doing a search. Record Annotations solves the problem of alerting researchers to issues in our source documents.
Annotations now make it possible to clearly identify errors in underlying records. With annotations we can highlight one or more fields on the record display page and provide corrections with supporting reference information.
If you are reporting an annotation, please provide a reference, preferably in the form of a freely available link. We want to maintain our high standards of scholarship, and hence will require documentation to make a change, so that other researchers can understand why the change was made.
In the example above (https://www.americanancestors.org/DB2728/rd/48580/164/1415732055) from the Mayflower Families Fifth Generation Descendants, 1700-1880 the birth year for Celia Little was incorrectly recorded in the book as 1754. The General Society of Mayflower Descendants has provided us their hand-amended copy of that book and a source reference to Marshfield Massachusetts Vital Records to document the corrected date. On the record display page, you see highlighted birth information. At the bottom of the display area you can see the Corrected Value and supporting Reference information. In this case, we were able to provide a hyperlink directly to the Marshfield birth record which has the correct information.
With this capability in place, we can now respond to members who have found a factual error in a database and can provide one or more references to support the correction. Once the annotation is made, it is available to anyone who displays the information about that record by visiting the record display page.
A new Report Error button was added to the record display, image display and transcript display pages. Clicking on this button will open a form with your email address automatically populated based on your log in id. You can provide corrections and reference documentation in the Comment field, the press Submit Request to send it to webmaster@nehgs.org. Feel free to use the new Report Error button or the older Comment or Question box to report all types of errors, annotations and questions about databases.
Sample report error form
Once you’ve reported the suggested annotation, we will review then request and the reference information before adding the annotation.
We hope you will enjoy both this new capability and the increased record quality this enables for American Ancestors.
Attribution: This post was a collaboration between Don LeClair and Molly Rogers.